SOUTH Africa celebrated 16 years of democracy yesterday with President Jacob Zuma offering a stark reminder that the effects of unjust apartheid laws lingered.

“Our people still have to daily confront the impact of the law,” Zuma said in Pretoria, referring to the now-repealed Group Areas Act.

Addressing thousands of people gathered at the Union Buildings for Freedom Day celebrations, he said the Act – which marked the institutionalising of racial partitioning of cities and towns – was still in existence 20 years after it was repealed.

“Many still live in areas once designated for black people ... away from economic opportunities and civic services,” he said. “Freedom imposes on us a responsibility to work together in the process of changing such conditions.”

This was one example among many which Zuma said needed to be addressed to ensure that people “enjoy the fruits of freedom”.

He cautioned that in four years time – after 20 years of democracy – the government would not have sympathy for reasons advanced to explain its failure to make a difference in the lives of the people.

Zuma urged tolerance for other race and culture groupings, saying further engagement was needed to promote common understanding.

Opposition parties, in their Freedom Day messages, urged South Africans to take a stand against corruption and “empty promises”.

Speaking at Constitution Hill, DA leader Helen Zille said South African voters had the power to stand up against corrupt government officials who abuse their positions of power.

“... we must remember 27 April 1994, and remember that we are not powerless. We have the vote,” she said. “If we don’t use our vote to change the people in power, there will be more and more abuse, and more and more corruption, and we will become a criminal state.”

Inkatha Freedom Party president Mangosutho Buthelezi, addressing celebrations in Vryheid, KwaZulu-Natal, said after 16 years the message had to go out “there was something better than empty promises”.

“There is something better than a leadership plagued by corruption and scandal.

“There is something better than poor service delivery and constant excuses.”

He added that voters would not elect people “whose hands stank with corruption”.

The Freedom Front Plus said democracy was tainted by the high murder rate in the country. FF Plus leader Pieter Mulder said South Africa was racially more divided now than at any other time since 1994.

He said racism was “easy politics” and “difficult politics” was to make a place in the sun for everybody in the country and find win-win solutions.

Congress of the People parliamentary leader Mvume Dandala said after 16 years there was much to celebrate in South Africa adding, however, that “economic bondage” remained a challenge. He called on all South Africans to “nurture good relations amongst all” and urged racial tolerance.

The SA Communist Party said the first democratic election in 1994 did not mark an end to the national democratic and class struggle, but brought the struggle onto different terrain. “We need to place our society onto a different developmental path, one in which meeting social needs is the priority and not profit-driven growth,” the party said.

CON artists are using their victims’ fear of witchcraft to steal thousands of rands in the Silverton area, Gauteng police said yesterday.

“We have these suspects that run over the area targeting individuals who have cash, and may be following them from the bank or ATM,” said Captain Jan Hawane Sepato.

When the scammers find a person carrying cash, they touch the victim with a grease- like substance. “They use grease and touch him. Then a second person comes and says: ‘They have taken your money with magic’,” Sepato said.

The second con artist is often an elderly man who appears to be trustworthy. The elderly man will then convince the victim to go with him to another place so that rituals can be performed so the money is not stolen with magic.

They are then robbed of their cash. The most recent incident was at the weekend when a person was robbed of R8000.

Johannesburg - Two Mamelodi police officers and three civilians, believed to be part of a blue light syndicate, were arrested in Silver Lakes on Monday, the Hawks said.

"Two of the suspects are women, including one of the officers," said spokesperson Musa Zondi.

The Pretoria rapid response unit and a police team specialising in house and business robberies were conducting surveillance east of Pretoria when they saw a vehicle believed to have been involved in a robbery.

They stopped it, checked it and found that it had been stolen a month ago, said Zondi. The three occupants were then arrested.

Police then went to the place the three had driven from, where they found two policemen, said Zondi. He would not say whether this was a house.

"It is suspected that the two police officers were trying to possibly hide evidence," he said.

Police seized an R5 police rifle and a number of pistols.

The five faced charges including illegal possession of arms and ammunition, and driving a stolen vehicle. Police were still trying to determine whether they could be linked to other crimes.

Zondi said the scene was visited by Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele.

Police guarding the Lebombo border post to Mozambique are not aware of the search for a Mozambican who is the main suspect in the assault on a one-year-old baby and her minder in Randburg - even though the neighbours of fugitive Chakhoma Machaba say he has not been at home for days.

They say they believe Machaba, a Mozambican who was reportedly living legally in South Africa, has fled to Maputo.

Yesterday, officers at South Africa's main border post with Mozambique confirmed to The Star that they did not have a circular notifying them about Machaba, nor did they have a warrant for his arrest.

Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said the department would have to be informed by the police about warrant-of-arrest details before they could act. But Gauteng police spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Eugene Opperman did not want to disclose whether Home Affairs had been made aware of the search.

"It is information that would only be known by us. We do not want to inform him (Machaba) about our plans to arrest him. We want to arrest him," Opperman emphasised.

On Saturday police arrested Gerald Nyatumbo, 28, in connection with the Randburg attack and later, acting on information, went searching for Machaba at his home. There they found his cousin, Nelson Maphosa, 25, who was also arrested.

Nyatumbo and Maphosa were due to appear again in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court today to face charges of robbery with aggravating circumstances and two counts of attempted murder.

Police, however, believe Machaba is their main suspect and have issued an appeal for information on the whereabouts of the 28-year-old.

Machaba, who lives in the corner of a large cluster of shacks in Alexandra, has apparently not been seen at his home for days.

The shack, down a narrow alley next to a spaza shop on 17th Avenue in Alexandra, was identifiable only by a licence plate number hanging on the door.

Etched on the side of the metal shack is the word "builder".

According to neighbours, Machaba shared this tiny, blue-door shack with three other men - one of whom was arrested at the weekend.

A friend, who did not wish to be named, confirmed that Machaba was out of work, and said he was generally a friendly guy who never drank, and was rarely seen at shebeens and taverns.

Earlier reports indicated that he had a propensity for violence.

And the bloody chaos that met Madelein Kruger when she returned home from work on Thursday bore testimony to that: her one-year-old daughter Marzaan was bleeding from the ears and nose and her nanny, Franscina Sekhu, had been assaulted too.

Sekhu told The Star from her hospital bed that she had let in the attacker because she considered him to be a friend, and knew him from his work as a builder at the Krugers' house.

Yesterday, Marzaan's family gathered outside the paediatric ICU at the Sandton Medi-Clinic. They refused to speak to the media, but hospital spokeswoman Liezl Furlong said the baby was still in a serious but stable condition.

Anyone with information on Machaba's whereabouts is asked to call 08600 10111 or report it to Crime Line on 32211.

Johannesburg - The two men arrested for the assault on baby Marzaan Kruger and her minder Francina Sekhu asked to be released from custody on Wednesday.

Nelson Maphosa, 28, and Geraldt Nyantumbo, 25, asked the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court to be released from custody.

"When I was arrested police said they were looking for my brother. He stole a cellphone and sold it to accused number one (Nyantumbo) and in that regard I ask to be released on free bail," said Maphosa through the court interpreter.

Nyantumbo told the court he should be released as he had children.

Case postponed

The men were arrested in Alexandra on Saturday after allegedly assaulting the one-year-old baby and Sekhu in the Kruger family home in Robindale in Randburg on Thursday.

The magistrate told the accused they had the right to apply for bail but they had to follow court procedures.

The hearing was not a formal bail application and the accused applied for legal aid and were remanded in custody.

The pair each face two charges of attempted murder and one of robbery with aggravated circumstances.